Stronger Than Steel
by WintermuteWintersun
Summary: What if Paladin Danse was the reason Nate was thawed? Danse and Nate work together to make it in the commonwealth and maybe realize they want more from each other... (Nate x Danse).
1. Chapter 1 - Beginnings Arc

Nate's mind felt like a thawing piece of porkchop, which wasn't completely untrue to say that it was. In his metal containing unit, thoughts and scenes were racing around in his groggy head.

One by one, they came back to him.

The bomb dropping as he descended into the vault, dust flying overhead. His child crying in Nora's arms as they stepped into the "decontamination unit" and the panic he felt when said decontamination unit began to freeze him alive.

But then the memory he really needed came back to him. The one as he defrosted for only a moment to watch men in peculiar outfits shoot his wife through the head and rip their infant son Shaun from her cold dead body.

"Manual Cryo Pod Release Override," a robotic voice echoed from outside his chamber.

It wasn't long for his eyesight to recover and the panic set in almost immediately. _Maybe she is alive, maybe there was something in her being frozen again that could save her. She couldn't be dead! _The thoughts just kept bouncing around in his head to no reprieve.

The medical training he received in the army in the back of his head knew better, but it stayed back there, safe from the irrational flurry of thoughts from the front of his brain.

As soon as the door opened, he dashed out and started slamming on the open button for Nora's chamber. "Come on… come on! Hurry up! Oh God!"

After what felt like weeks waiting for the cryo pod to open its maw, the moment came where he could no longer ignore the truth. He simply fell to his knees with her cold, hard hand in his, he knew that she was gone. He wanted to cry and just lay his head on her lap for a moment, maybe a year or two, but his son was still out there somewhere. So, he quietly wiped the tears from his cheek, took the ring from her finger and said, "I'll find who did this and I'll get Shaun back. I promise."

"Halt!" And perhaps that day of reckoning came sooner than expected. As he turned around, he saw a man in power armor (not unlike the ones he would wear in the army), standing three or four feet taller than him with some kind of orange cowl over his head. Nate had a laser rifle pointed right at him, finger resting outside of the trigger. On his breastplate, he saw some kind of insignia: a sword with wings and cogs in the background.

"Who are you?" Nate asked.

"Who am I? I think you better answer that first." The man shifted his gun.

"Are you with the men who killed my wife and took my child." He immediately started looking around for any kind of weapon. He saw some loose pipes by his feet that he could grab without too much notice. Nate was incredibly lucky the man didn't have a helmet on, one or two good thwacks to the head and he could take down the goliath, no matter his armor.

"I don't know what you're talking about. The Brotherhood of Steel does not deal in child trafficking or the murder of innocents." Nate looked into the man's eyes and what honest eyes they were. Dutiful, straightforward, like a lot of men's eyes he saw in the war. "Now answer my question."

"Nate… that's my name. What did you just say? Brotherhood of Steel?"

The man seemed to calm down somewhat and turn his gun away. "Nate. It's good to meet you. My name is Paladin Danse." He raised an eyebrow. "And you don't know about the Brotherhood of Steel?"

"Are they allied with the Government?"

"The Government?" He extended a hand to him for Nate to get off the floor. "I think you might be a little disorientated, soldier."

It was true that his head did feel foggy, but it didn't feel THAT foggy. "Maybe."

"It's good to meet you and I hope you the best, but I've wasted enough time here. I thought there'd be a deep range transmitter, but it turns out it was just a false signal from a malfunctioning system." He rested his face in his palm "I can't believe I left a wounded soldier with a scribe in the middle of a ghoul infested town for this." His face remained cool, but his tone was aggravated. "Godspeed, soldier."

He turned around to leave the cryo pod chamber hall, when Nate yelled out, "Wait! Please! Don't leave."

Danse raised an armored fist. "I already told you, I can't spare another moment."

"I'm all alone, my child's been abducted. I really need your help. I have a house, a car, if you help me I'll give you anything you want."

He turned his head and showed a remorseful look. "I'm sorry, I can't imagine the feeling of losing a child, but if you think that you're the only one in the wasteland who's lost someone, think again."

"Wasteland?" Nate felt his eyes bug out of his head.

Danse's faces could be described as the depths of pity. "Good luck out there."

Just then out of the corner of his eye, he saw what looked like a giant roach crawling on the ceiling. Spewing some green radioactive liquid from its orifices. Danse kept walking, muttering something to himself, clearly distraught and distracted. It fluttered its wings a small bit and it leapt from the ceiling right at Danse's face.

"Look out!" In the split second as the roach descended, he picked up the pipe by his feet and sniped it out of the air. The now speared roach hit the ground with a loud clank, twitching slightly.

Danse slowly turned around. "Good aim…" he said with a speculative lilt. He walked back over with his feet thudding like thunder. He suddenly grabbed Nate's arm with his gauntlets and began inspecting his muscles. "Tell me, soldier, was that luck?"

"What?" Nate blushed a little.

"Did you hit that radroach by luck?"

"No… I was the best shot in my division."

Danse continued to squeeze at his body and stare deep in his eyes, looking contemplative. Nate had to wonder what suddenly made him stay. Eventually, Danse just sighed and said, "Truth is, soldier, I'm in a bit of a bind."

"Welcome to the party."

"I'm here scouting the commonwealth, but things haven't gone as smooth as I've wanted to put it mildly. I've wanted to call Headquarters for back up, but the radio transmitter we have isn't strong enough and we need a deep range transmitter. There's a place that we know has it."

"Then why don't you go get it? Why are you here."

"Arcjet Systems, it's swarming with synths and as I mentioned, I've got one soldier down and my only other soldier is tending to him. I was banking on this place being—one—unprotected and—two—having what I needed. One of those were true."

"Excuse me, synths?"

Danse just shook his head. "I need another able body to go with me to Arcjet to get the transmitter. And you're the ablest, non-raider body I'm going to find."

"Oh, you think my body is able, hmmm?"

"Don't get cocky, soldier," he said turning his face away.

"What's in it for me? I get to risk my life against these unknown enemies for your unknown organization?"

"Being able to say you helped the Brotherhood is one of the greatest rewards anyone can ask in the wasteland," Danse said with bravado. Nate cocked his head. Danse leaned on the control panels. "But I guess that doesn't mean much to someone who knows nothing about The Brotherhood of Steel. In turn, I'll help you out on your crusade as long as you help me out on mine whenever the need arises. What do you say?"

"You'll help me all I want?"

"Within reason of course. The Brotherhood will come first and foremost above all else and if our goals should ever oppose one another, then I would consider our partnership null and void."

Nate couldn't hide the speculative look on his face, imagining the petty reasons he considers 'opposing goals.'

Danse followed up. "Look, I would normally never make such an offer a generous amount of my time, but if I don't get this deep range transmitter, it'll likely be the end of us."

Nate just had to look back at his frozen wife and the ring in the palm of his hand. He never felt so alone in his life, having everything taken in only a single moment. Some could get addicted to that feeling of being alone, having only yourself to trust and rely on. Something secure in that feeling that you'd die and live by your own abilities. But if he knew anything about himself, it was that he didn't want to be that person, some kind of lone wanderer, some sole survivor.

He raised his head and flashed a smile that shone through his dried tears. "Well, I was thinking about what the next handsome armored man would offer me, but I think I'll go with you."

"Outstanding," Danse said with a smile. "I have a feeling this will be a fruitful relationship."


	2. Chapter 2

"Did you get all that?" Danse asked.

"So, there's zombies, robots and the world went to shit. Good to know."

Walking through the forest he once knew felt incredibly sad. He didn't even feel like he was on the same planet, but some kind of copycat planet made by someone with a sick sense of humor. They were south of vault, having been walking for some time. Danse decided to make a beeline to Arcjet, prioritizing the transmitter above all else while Nate wanted to just see what his home had become.

"They aren't zombies, they're ghouls," Danse said shaking his head.

"Ghouls're just semi-braindead former humans with only a taste for human flesh. Totally different from zombies."

"Zombies are in comic books. Ghouls are right behind you and will kill you."

Nate felt a twitch in his neck as he attempted to resist looking behind him. Eventually he had to give in and pointed the 10mm pistol he found in the vault at the nothing behind him. "Okay, fair enough, but the concept is the same."

"Soldier, this isn't a game!" Danse had to stop in place and look directly down on Nate. "Frankly, I find your nonchalant attitude to be concerning. Especially the circumstances you just arrived from."

"It's the only thing that's keeping me together," he laughed pitifully and kept his eyes low, "There's an aneurysm at the back of my mind, all cued up for the moment I accept what's happening."

"Well, some of us are currently accepting this world. And we'd like it if you joined us before we have to lay our lives in your hands."

"I mean… again, fair point. But do you have to be so cold about it all? A reassuring pat on the back would really do wonders right about now." He looked over and saw Danse's armored hand shift a bit. "Maybe when you're out of the power armor."

Danse started moving again. "The way I see it, it's either a cold man or a warm corpse."

"Is that the Brotherhood of Steel's slogan?"

Danse didn't bother answering. They moved along in silence which gave Nate some time to fiddle the new gadget on his wrist. "What's this called again?" Nate asked, pointing to his wrist-gadget.

"A Pip-Boy."

"Pip-Boy… I think I vaguely remember someone mentioning that before." He started flipping through every screen he had, twisting each and every dial to ad nauseum trying to figure out the worn-out abbreviations. The amount of settings it had were outstanding, vitals sensors, a holotape reader, a reminder section for inputted duties, a map and then he ended up on the radio section.

As they were walking, suddenly a frequency showed up. "Military Frequency AF95, hmmmmmmm…" he said.

"Don't bo—"

Before Danse could finish, he pressed on the screen and the Pip-Boy began to speak at its loudest volume. "**This is Scribe Haylen of Reconnaissance Squad Gladius to any unit in transmission range. Authorizat—**"

"Turn that down!" Danse yelled.

"Trying! I must have turned it up accidently while I was exploring." He started rapidly plucking at every dial. Eventually he hit on one that made it even louder.

"**OUR UNIT HAS SUSTAINED CASUALTIES AND WE'RE RUNNING LOW O—**" it screamed.

"Remember how I said this would be a fruitful relationship. I take that back in full!"

Eventually he found a separate dial to turn it down. They just stared at each other with Danse getting progressively redder by the second. "Hey, at least you're not the only one in distress."

"That was my squad's distress signal!"

Before Nate could make a witty remark, he felt a rumbling from under him.

"Be prepared," Danse said, pointing his gun at the ground.

Just at that moment, five snarling giant mole rats flew up from the ground. Not one to admire their bloody pink skin and completely white eyes, Nate swiftly dodged to the side, got onto one knee and took four of them out in just four shots.

Danse took out the last one with a swift stomp of his powered boot.

When they looked at each other again, Danse's expression changed a bit. Nate didn't have to ask what he was thinking, it was written all over his face. It was clear he was still upset about the trouble Nate was causing, but his handiwork also spoke for itself. "Good shot," Danse said, moving on.

"Hey, shouldn't we take those?" Nate said pointing at the four rats, "I feel like they could valuable food."

"Valuable…?" Danse raised an eyebrow. "You're **really** not from this time, are you?" Danse said.

"It depends what '_this time'_ is."

"2287."

Nate's heart jumped a beat. "Oh. Not too far from my own time."

"How close."

He chuckled. "2077."

Danse gave a rare chuckle of his own. "I figured, Vault-Tec had a nasty habit of performing experiments on the pre-war population immediately after the bombs dropped. A vault of all frozen people, though…"

"You know that aneurysm is really raring to go." He said quietly to himself, "210 years…" Any hope of surviving friends suddenly from slim to none. Nate needed anything to take his mind off of how many people he knew were gone. "So, we've covered what synths and ghouls are. What's this Brotherhood of Steel all about?"

Danse raised his chin a bit when talking about The Brotherhood. "We're devoted to the continuation of humanity, preservation of technology and the destruction of The Institute and their synths." Danse seemingly read his mind as he continued on, "The Institute are a clandestine, underground group of scientists with the goal of replacing the entire population of the above ground with synths."

"They replace people?" His eyes bugged out. "That's… concerning… but also confusing…" A chill hit his spine. "I got to admit that I'm somewhat interested to see these robots."

"You had robot technology in the past, right?"

"Yeah, but nothing on the level of these synths you're talking about."

The thought of him walking into his home to see Codsworth, the floating metal ball with six robotic limbs, in a pink frilly apron, pulling an apple pie from the oven yelling, "Good afternoon, sir! It is I, your wife, Nora!" made Nate chuckle a bit.

"What's so funny?"

"Just thinking about my old Mr. Handy." Another reminder of all the people he lost hit him suddenly. "There's no chance he's still around, right?"

"A lot of pre-war technology has been appropriated by the Brotherhood of Steel, many more destroyed by the fallout of the Great War, but even still General Atomics certainly made their products to last and it isn't uncommon to see one of said creations wandering the wild."

He looked behind his shoulder at the distant image of Sanctuary Hills that they hurried past.

"We can't go back."

"I know, I know. Hurry, hurry, hurry." He couldn't help but look back though, wondering if Codsworth had been waiting all this time for him to come back home. A silly thought, but a comforting one. He brought his head back forward.

They kept on walking, encountering a small pack of wolves and a couple bloodbugs that took him for even more of a loop that previous horrific creatures they saw. But just like before, Nate kept sharpshooting them out of commission (although the skinny bloodbugs did take a few shots). And with each impressive display Danse's dire urge to abandon Nate at the nearest river decreased.

"Hey," Nate said, lightly slapping Danse's breastplate.

"What?"

"Wanna carry me?"

"Are you seriously tired after sleeping for two centuries?" Danse kept his head forward. "No."

"Aww, come on! I've been in power armor before, carrying me would be like carrying a sack of apples."

"If I'm carrying you and an enemy dec—"

"I'm joking, Danse, jeez!" He pouted. "Unless if you change your mind, in which case, I'm not joking at all."

"They let people like you in the army? If I were your sergeant, I might have kicked you out at the first instance of sass."

"Hey!" Nate smirked. "Sure, I can be a little sarcastic, witty, loose, but that's when I'm off duty. On duty, it's all 'yes sir, no sir,' and the like. That's how you have to be when you're in the military. If you're in soldier mode 24/7 you're bound to go crazy." Nate side-eyed him. "I think it may be a little late for you."

A sad look crossed Danse's face. "You'll realize how rare off-duty is soon enough, soldier."

Before Nate could ask, they arrived at Arcjet Systems: a thoroughly rusted through building that looked like it could collapse at any moment. Granted, he'd describe most of the buildings they passed along the way as such.

"This place is almost certainly swarming with synths." Danse locked eyes with Nate. "It only takes two seconds for a synth to sense you and shoot you down. You know what that means, right?"

He stood at attention with a salute "Yes, sir, I only have one second to shoot them down first, sir." He lowered his salute and got back into a casual pose.

Danse did his best to hide a smile. "Let's go already."


	3. Chapter 3

Things were off to a fast start as before they even opened the door, synths were shooting blue bolts of plasma, but just not at them.

It was here in the two-story reception area did Nate learn what a synth was right then and there. The first of the five he saw, really shook him to his core, it was so similar to a human, with the same form, same face, just an eerie shade of blueish grey with ridges separating sections of its body. A far cry from the Mr. Handy he had at his home.

But that was just the first synth he saw. Then came one with only half the face, part human and part machine. All cogs were on display, with mechanical organs in the exoskeleton frame one might pretend to be human.

They were lucky they were so distracted, shooting at a desk in the middle of the entrance foyer as it made for easy pickings for them. They took no time in shooting four of them down, only then did the attention shift to them for the final remaining synth to try to rush them only to meet their destroyers.

"So that's a synth." He approached the corpse of the last synth, he fully expected for it to be just metal parts, but it turned out there were fleshy bits in there as well. Easier to kill, certainly, but definitely made everything a bit creepier.

"Indeed," he said, "You see what an abomination it is."

He felt a pit in his stomach looking at the collapsed piece of synth. He felt like he wasn't even looking at something of this world. "Yeah," he said despondently.

Danse continued, closer to the smoking desk. "My question is who or what were they shooting at?"

"That'd be me!" A meek-ish girl's voice spoke from under the desk. She must have heard them cock their guns, as she immediately said, "Hey! Don't shoot!" A girl in a newsboy cap and a red leather trenchcoat emerged from under a desk.

"Is that a synth?"

"Not the kind of synth we're looking for, but still could be a third generation synth possibly."

The girl scoffed and shook her head. "You can ramble off a bunch of random numbers to see if I got a deactivation code, if that tickles your fancy."

"Oh my goodness!" Nate clutched his chest. "A person with a sense of humor, I thought you people went extinct!"

Danse glared at him and looked back at the girl. "State your name, civilian."

"Piper Wright, Publick Occurrences."

"A journalist!" Nate clapped his hands together.

"A journalist?" Danse said.

"Only one in the commonwealth, pleased to meet you." She pointed to the gun. "Wanna lower that?" Danse just stared. "Hey, I know the free press can be scary, but I swear my notepad can only give papercuts at best." She made an awkward, but amused face. "Well, I also have a gun, but I like to think my wit is more dangerous."

Nate stared at the staring contest for longer than he wanted and decided to put a stop to it by physically lowering Danse's gun for him. He went over and extended his hand, "Hi, I'm Nate."

"Who's your _Brother?_"

"Oh, we're not… Oh! You know about The Brotherhood of Steel?"

"Luckily little enough, but I'm sure your broody friend will give me an update on their values, slogans and history of the last twenty years soon enough whether I'd like to or not," she said, eyeing down Danse. "As a proud boy does."

"Paladin Danse," he finally said.

"So, what's a vault-dweller and Brotherhood of Steel paladin doing in an aviation equipment testing building?"

Nate was about to speak, but Danse went up and put a hand on Nate's chest. "We could ask the same of you."

"Parts. My printing press is on the fritz," she said waving a piece of melt up, "Boom! Your turn."

Danse just tapped his gauntlet on his chest again, but this time he just scoffed and said, "He's looking for a deep range transmitter, and I just woke up from a double-century nap."

Piper laughed and then stopped. "Wait, are you serious?"

"Vault 111; coldest nap on this side of the Mississippi."

Piper looked like she was on the verge of a heart-attack. She dropped her piece of metal and frantically took her pen and pad from her trench coat pockets. "Someone who vividly remembers the time before the bombs? I cannot pass up on this scoop!"

Danse retorted, "There's plenty of ghouls who've been alive since the bombs."

"Yeah, but asking them about that time is like asking your dementia-ridden grandpa what they had for breakfast." She started shaking her hands around, "_Uh, uh, uh, mutfruit salad? Coyote steak? A wrench?_"

Danse interjected. "We're not waiting around to do an interview." He grabbed Nate by the arm and continued walking. "C'mon soldier."

Piper jogged along. "That's fine! Wherever you're going, I can come too!"

"Absolutely not. We are not toting around another civilian who could potentially be a synth, an undercover raider or worse."

"Or worse?" Piper said with an exasperated expression. "What? Do you think I could be a deathclaw in disguise?"

Nate chuckled and looked up at him. Danse snapped his head to Nate, "You don't know what a deathclaw is!"

"But I can imagine!" He looked up to Danse. "Another gun could be helpful."

"Come on, listen to Blue, I can handle myself."

"Blue?" Nate said, he looked down at his jumpsuit and said, "Oh."

"Fine, just as long as you don't slow us down or distract us."

She gave a thumbs up and they continued on their way.

A number of things surprised Nate as they made their way through the facility. One was that there was still energy with lights running after all of these years. Another was how damaged, yet structurally stable the building was. He swore he didn't see a single unshattered window or ceiling unperforated on their way and yet the building was still together.

Piper didn't waste time to start her interview. The beginning was rather standard for Nate (and Nate alone) as he went through his major story beats: bomb, freeze, dead wife, missing son, present day. He was somehow able to keep himself together through it all.

"What are you going to do when you find the man who did all that?" Piper asked.

"Probably reconcile, figure out what circumstances would lead to him ending up in such a soul-crushing lifestyle, learn to forgive, et cetera."

"Really?"

"No, Piper," he flashed a delightful smile. "I'm going to kill him, then I'm going to fucking kill him again."

She wrote that down shamefully, "Yeah, I probably should have figured that." She tapped her pen on her pad and bared a pained expression.

"Was that all you wanted to know?" Nate said.

"No, it's just…" She stuck her pen in her mouth and jangled it around a bit. "Where do you start in asking someone about a life you don't have the first clue about?" She laughed. "How was life?"

"There were good times, bad times." He grimaced. "Honestly, after everything that's happened over this past couple of hours, they all feel like good times. Nora and I losing our parents, Nora failing a class in law school, all of the fights we had, the forever-clogging toilet in our old apartment… they all seem like the best of times to me now."

It wasn't even til the end of the hallway did they find their next batch of synths. Amongst the slews of data terminals and computers, they wandered aimlessly as if simply waiting for them to arrive. "Human presence detected," one of them said.

Piper got out of reporter mode and quickly exchanged her pad and pen with a pistol.

They went in and got to see Piper's abilities in action. And he had to admit that, for a journalist, she certainly had some skill. Not as much skill as the two military men with her, but certainly skilled. It took her a few more shots than Danse or Nate to take a synth down, but far less than he expected from someone who worked at The Boston Globe.

Once dispatched, Danse had a look around and found a power armor helmet on the ground.

"Here's my helmet."

"What's it doing here?"

"Truth is, I already attempted to scavenge this place once already, but I had to quit because I was overrun with synths." Danse had a deep look of shame on his face as he slid his helmet over it. "They were able to shoot off my helmet and I had no time to grab it while retreating."

Nate shrugged. "Eh, we all fail, it's no biggie."

"In The Brotherhood, we don't fail. Victory is the only option."

"That hardly seems practical," Nate said. Not that he didn't hear that kind of sentiment in the army, but he found it just as silly there as well. Just another aspect of Danse he would have to work on.

Piper continued the interview as they traversed the building, but still found herself lost for words the entire time, resulting in vague questions about 'how things were' to which he gave vague answers of things being better.

"Man, I've got a one in a million story in front of me and I feel like I'm blowing it."

"Hey, don't worry about it, I'm not going anywhere."

It looked like a thought crossed her mind, one that she looked like she regret having.

Soon they found themselves at the top of a test silo for some kind of rocket, with the giant engine blaster hovering over the whole area. They made their way down a wirey walkway as it was the only way. Down at the bottom was years upon years of built up debris of testing this engine.

Danse said, "If the deep range transmitter is anywhere, it's up there." He pointed to an area with windows up above where they came into the silo. He went over to an elevator and pushed the bottom to no response.

"There's no power in this area, it seems, except for the lights." He said through his helmet's speakers, looking around at the void of electricity for anything substantial. He opened a door that led to a hallway that assumedly led to somewhere with power.

"Go find the power reactor for the elevator, I'll stand and watch guard in here."

"Yeah, let's go," Piper said, roping Nate along.

They made their way into a control room with a large window looking in upon the silo. The room was cluttered as most of Arcjet was with a dull red button with the words "Engine Start" underneath. Even though he knew it wouldn't work in its current state, he wanted to stay far away.

"Hey," Piper said as they began looking around the room.

"Yeah?"

"How much do you really know about The Brotherhood."

"A bit, they're about saving the world from the Institute and evil synths."

"Yeah… that's… _true…_" She looked him dead in the eye. "I just think you should think it over if you're planning to run with the Brotherhood."

"What? Don't wanna join the Brotherhood? Is it cus you think they don't accept women? Don't worry, I already asked and no, they—"

"I already know that… it's more of their… unique attitudes."

"Unique attitudes?"

"They enjoy a very limited view of what it means to be a person. And they have a hard time coexisting with anyone with a different definition."

"Oh."

"And by 'hard time coexisting' I mean, they annihilate it until there's no more left of it." She chuckled. "So, they're definitely saving the Commonwealth for a specific kind of person."

Nate didn't respond as he rummaged through a drawer quietly.

"And I get that it's hard to wrap your head around synths, but there's plenty of sentient ghouls out there who are just as human as you and me, but they also exclude them from their purity circle. I'm guessing you haven't met them yet."

His confidence was shaking. He was certainly at a fragile point in his existence having lost nearly everything; As silly as it sounds, he put almost all of his hopes, dreams and trust into Danse since anyone else to accept them were taken so suddenly. And it seemed he was about to lose someone else as he began to reconsider if he wanted to share company with a genocidal man.

"Don't get me wrong, there's definitely good people in the Brotherhood of Steel, but you have to ask where exactly are they going?" Piper turned to see Nate look crestfallen on Danse's patrol of the silo. She went over to cheer him up some. "Danse seems like a good enough guy, but just think about it before you get into bed with The Brotherhood."'

He looked out at Danse, diligently survey the area. He didn't think of a genocidal maniac when he saw him. He could only see the pure, if not stubborn heart that beat proudly under his power armor. But even if he's not so fanatical as the company he runs with, there's complicity in what he does.

But these were all unfounded feelings based entirely on hearsay. He would have to keep any conceptions he had under wraps until he knew more of Danse and The Brotherhood firsthand.

"Ooo!" he yelled in his search, having found a treat. "What's this beauty?" A giant hunk of metal, looking like something between a cannon and a pistol. Almost the size of a microwave oven, he couldn't possibly conceive of such a weapon.

Piper came over. "That's a Junk Jet, I think."

"Junk Jet," he said with fingertip-tingling curiosity.

"Yeah." She looked around and found a wrench. "You put any junk you have in this end." She placed it in the open tube barrel. She then found a pulley and ripped it as hard as possible like it was time to mow grass. "Then you—" She grunted as she attempted to lift the giant machinery.

Nate quickly ran over to the window and knocked, getting Danse's attention. Nate pointed to Piper with a child-like excitement.

"Let's see…" Piper went looking for the perfect point to shoot at. "There!" She pointed at the doorknob of a door they were locked out of. She clicked the trigger the wrench went flying at the speed of a bullet, demolishing the doorknob, but also sent the wrench flying back in spectacular fashion.

Nate ducked, only soon enough to miss being decapitated by the flying wrench. He got back to full height as soon as possible and gave a thumbs-up to Danse.

Danse just gave a cold head shake. Nate frowned. "Whatever," he said, going back to looking.

"Bit of a wet blanket, isn't he?" Piper said, putting the Junk Jet down and flipping a switch to stop its moving.

"Sure is, but he's my wet blanket." He still moped. "If I had my own power armor, I bet I could just carry it for myself."

They both made their way into what looked like the power room with a generator with a fusion core running happily. He quickly took the power core out of the generator and luckily the lights still kept running. Piper gave him a weird look. "For my suit of power armor when the time comes," he said.

There was a terminal at a desk nearby. "Here we go." He immediately realized that this was the key to restoring power to the engine core. He booted it up but was immediately met with a password screen. "Shit."

"Good thing I found this," Piper said, handing off a slip of paper that had the password to the power room terminal.

"Handy, indeed." He plugged in the code and they were into the options menu. He scrolled down the option to start auxiliary generators and hit the enter key. "There!"

Almost immediately upon hitting the key, they heard was sounded like a dozen Institute pistols rapidly going off all at once. "Shit!" he said, scrambling out of the room, Piper following.

The sight they saw was not a pretty one as one by one, Institute synths fell from above into the test chamber pit, firing rapidly on Danse. The entire test chamber was almost fully-lit in baby blue from the lasers.

Danse was holding up, taking out all that he could, but not for long.

"Argh! Where did they come from? What do we do?! What do we do?!" Piper was scrambling around the test room as more and more synths were piling into the silo. "SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"

Suddenly Nate was taken back to his days in basic when he learned about power armor and its capabilities.

Nate flipped open the glass case to the ignition system. He raised his hand to smack the bright red button when Piper grabbed his wrist. "What are you doing?!" Piper yelled.

"Trust me!" He used his other hand to smack down the button.

"No!" Piper screamed.

A robot voice spoke, "Engines beginning in 5… 4…"

"I can't believe you've just killed Danse!"

"3... 2…"

"Just wait!"

"… 1."

Suddenly the jet engine began, lighting everything in a bright yellow. Enough to blind them if they hadn't shielded their eyes fast enough. The heat was so intense that even in the control room, they could feel it.

In basic training, Nate learned quite how indestructible the power armor was, being able to handle up to 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit and almost infinite radiation. He made a gamble when he pressed that button, whether or not the power armor would protect Danse. A rock fell to the pit of his stomach as he looked from the side of his eye as the synths burst into flames and melted to ash. Suddenly all assuredness he had was leaking out between gritted teeth. "Please be right, please be right…" he said tapping his heel nervously on the ground.

Just as fast as his world blew up in orange did it return to the dull gray.

"Test complete," the robot voice said.

Piper and Nate spared no time to sprint through the corridor into the silo. "Danse! Danse!" they both were screaming. They jumped over the pools of molten synth to a significantly charred version of Danse.

"Danse! Are you okay?" Nate yelled. He was unmoving, kneeled in a defensive position.

But at last, Danse let out a long groan. "A little charred, but my power armor took most of the hit."

Nate let out a relieved sigh and went for a hug before he relieved that would have been hurt worse than Danse if he touched him in his steaming power armor.

Piper immediately began begging. "Danse, I am so sorry, Nate just acted on his own and—"

"Don't, that was an incredible move on Nate's part. If he didn't do that, we might have all been dead instead of just me. He put the many over the few; an excellent quality for anybody in the Brotherhood of Steel."

Danse took off his charred helmet, and with it, his hood that let his hair finally go free. Nate felt Danse's proud expression beaming down on him, but Nate couldn't help but still feel uneasy. Like he was looking at the dead body of Danse talking to him.

"Let's hurry on, soldier," Danse said, moving onto the elevator.

They followed on and loaded into the elevator up. As they got to the top of the silo, Danse was ready to get out when, Nate crossed his arm out. "I'll lead. Your armor could be compromised."

Danse gave him a queer look, but just said, "Very well."

Nate got low as they moved up along a wire walkway. Slowly but surely getting to an office space, filled with synths. One thing he hated about these synths they they're smart enough to detect human life without even seeing them, but one thing he liked was they weren't smart enough to know where it is.

"Human life detected," one of them said.

He rolled his eyes and immediately ran into the room with guns blazing. Dispatching synths left and right with Danse and Piper taking down their fair share as well. After not too long, they had gotten through the room with no casualties on their end. Danse said that the transmitter was likely on one of the synths and after a bit of looking, they found it.

A look of relief passed over Danse's face. But the mission wasn't quite over. "Let's take that elevator and get out of here."

They all got on and waited as the elevator took its sweet time reaching the surface.

"You sure you're okay?" Nate asked Danse.

"I'm fine, soldier, truly." Danse patted him on the back. "Don't have any regrets."

"Yeah, I'll try…" Nate said as the elevator opened to the outside, bringing back the putrid smells of the wasteland.

Danse led them a safe distance away until they were past the perimeter. "Finally…" he said, holding the little cube transmitter in his hand. "Perhaps, we can be saved now." He looked almost choked up, but he got it together. "I want to thank the both of you. If either of you weren't here, this may have not have been as much of a resounding success as it was."

"Don't mention it," Piper said, "It's good to make some new friends."

Nate looked Danse in the eyes. "I'm just glad we all got out of there alive."

"I have to thank you most of all, Nate, your help was indispensable. In there, you've displayed qualities greatly befitting that of a Brotherhood Steel member."

Nate pondered out loud. "Are wisecracks part of those qualities?"

He shook his head. "Let it be known that whether you accept or decline my offer, I will keep up my side of the bargain, but let me just say I would be honored if you chose to join The Brotherhood of Steel."

Nate looked to Piper who had a clear 'Don't do it' expression of her face. But in truth, he couldn't possibly fathom the idea of crossing the wasteland with someone else.

"Sure! I'd love to!"

Piper's eyes said, '_I warned you._'

Danse finally gave a heartwarming smile. "That's excellent to hear. As Paladin, I hearby recognize you as Initiate. Ad Victorium, soldier."

"Ad Victorium?" Nate said.

"It means to victory in Latin," Piper said with a elbow to his ribs.

"Oh," Nate said, "Ad Victorium!"

Danse looked towards the east. "So now we head back to the Cambridge Police Station where we've set up base."

"Wait? Cambridge?" Piper said with horror on her face. "That place is swarming with ghouls."

"I know that. And Sanctuary Hills is swarming with wolves. Jamaica Plains is swarming with mirelurks. No matter where we go, we're going to be swarmed with something." He looked at her stern, presumably for questioning his competency. "We picked ghouls."

"I mean, there is one place…" Piper said, crossing her arms looking elsewhere.

"Preposterous, second to a well-maintained vault, there's no where that's fully safe from the monsters of the wasteland."

"What about Diamond City?" She said with a pained smirk.

"Diamond City?" Nate asked.

"It's a city built in the ruins of one of the pre-war world's sporting events."

"Fenway!" Nate exclaimed.

Piper took that name down. "Oh, you're just a pot-o-gold of information, aren't you?" She put her pad away. "But, yes, it's one of the safest places in the Commonwealth."

"Well, if you have a free house to offer us in Diamond City, we'd greatly appreciate it. But, sadly, we don't have the resources to purchase said house."

"I have a place in Diamond City, you goon!" Piper yelled, rolling her eyes. "And you see, I had a crazy thought…" The same face she had earlier looking like she had a thought she would regret showed up again. "What if you move into my place in Diamond City."

"What do you get out of this?"

"Can't a girl just want to support the troops?"

Danse narrowed his gaze. "No one in the wasteland does something out of the kindness of their hearts. Ever."

"Okay, okay! I need a little protection is all. Or at least the image of it. Honestly, most of my enemies will probably shit themselves and rethink when they see a man in power armor sitting at my doorstop."

Nate joined Danse and narrowed his gaze on Piper. "I thought you said Diamond City was safe."

"It is! Well, for everyone else that is…" She flashed a cheeky smile. "While I don't have to worry about ghouls, super mutants, raiders, et cetera… there is one of the deadliest creatures to every roam land residing in Diamond City… mildly inconvenienced citizens."

Danse turned his nose up. "I don't like that regular people are turning up in arms against you, frankly it makes me reconsider having you in my company."

"Yes, I'm known as a bit of a troublemaker, but it's only for the best of intentions. I expose Diamond City's people to all of the injustices that are lurking right under the murk like a mirelurk watching a brahmin graze by an irradiated pond."

"Get on with it."

"People don't like being disillusioned and unfortunately for them, I give them all exactly don't want."

Even Nate had to slant his mouth at her offer. "So, you want us to act like paid security guards."

"Only sort of! You guys just need to sit on my porch every once in a while, shoot the ground if someone gets testy." She spoke quietly under her breath, "_Hand out a newspaper or two?_" She clapped her hands together. "Easy!"

"I don't like the idea of allocating Brotherhood resources for a citizen's personal protection. We aren't mercenaries."

"It's not even really me who needs protection. It's more for my little sister. A while back, someone threw a brick through our window and she hasn't really been her carefree self since." She sighed and tried to get riled up, but her front suddenly dropped for a second. "I don't feel great leaving her alone when I'm out story-hunting and would love for someone to be there when I'm gone. That's really why I want you to come stay with me."

The hint of humanity flashed behind Danse's eyes, as he knew he couldn't quite ignore helping a child. But still his sense of duty to protect the Brotherhood's name and not wanting to affiliate was still intact.

"Plus, I just can't let Blue over here have his brains eaten out in the middle of the night, just 'cause he decided to take a nap in Cambridge." Piper went over and cradled Nate's head. "This brain has far too many goodies!"

Danse just needed that last push as his face lost each bit of apprehension.

"To sweeten the deal, how about I write an article about you?"

"Will it be good?" Danse asked.

"It will be honest."

"That means no," Nate said.

"No, it doesn't!" She flashed some eyes that said 'traitor,' "I do have my journalistic pride that refuses me to blatantly put out propaganda, so don't think I'll omit all of your rough bits. But as long as you're as virtuous and good-natured, I'll think you'll be able to escape my scathing tongue." She cocked her head. "Pen? Scathing pen? Scathing prose?" She shrugged.

Danse turned to Nate. "Since you're now officially a part of The Brotherhood of Steel, what do you think, Initiate?"

He looked up to the irradiated sky, brimming with greens and red and with a smile he said, "Lovely day to move, don't you think?"


	4. Chapter 4 - Diamond City Arc

Meeting his two new teammates at the Cambridge Police Station felt a lot like inviting over the neighbors you don't like too much for an afternoon tea. Awkward.

"So, you're my two new teammates, huh?" Nate said breaking the silence that Piper and the crew stewed in while they stood in the middle of the police station lobby, waiting for Danse who was setting up the beacon.

The man and the woman looked at each other briefly and the man said without a hint of emotion, "Yup."

"What are your names again?" Nate said awkwardly. "I know Danse said them, but I'm just horrible with these things, you know?"

"Rhys," the man said.

"Haylen," the woman said.

Nate put a hand on his chest as he said, "I'm—"

"Nate," Haylen said, "And that's Piper, our new landlord. We remembered."

"Oh." And the silence was back again. He took this time to study his new teammates. Rhys was a sturdy looking man with rather broad features. Easily the squarest jaw he ever saw and eyebrows almost as thick as… well… him. Not overweight, but certainly a filled-out man.

Haylen by contrast was a rather petite woman with features to match. An oval face with unassuming features that always displayed what she was feeling no matter how much she wanted to show them or not. And in that moment she was feeling unsure.

Their outfits were pretty interesting too. With Haylen in an industrial-looking turtleneck sweater with a cowl and a goggled hat on top. Rhys was in an orange and white leather jumpsuit, something that looked like what Nate saw peeks of what Danse was wearing under his armor.

"Are you done staring?" Rhys said, breaking Nate's trance.

"Sorry!" He said with hands up. "So… it was just the three of you on this recon mission, then?"

"Seven of us," Rhys said, "The others are dead."

"Oh yeah, I remember that. I listen to your distress signal." He looked to Haylen and awkwardly said, "Uh, you have, uh, a great speaking voice."

Haylen gave an odd look. "Thanks?"

Back to silence as they sat, stewing in an ambiguous animosity. He looked to Piper for some kind of support, but she clearly had as much to say as he did. Instead, she fiddled with her notepad, presumably writing down questions she would like to ask him for his big feature.

Nate said, "Tell me about your positions."

Haylen said, "Well, I'm a scribe and he's a knight."

"So, um… what exactly do those mean?" He grimaced. "I mean I technically know what a scribe and knight are, I just imagine in this context it involves less clay tablets and horses."

She let out a polite laugh. "A scribe is part of the civilian class of the Brotherhood and our job is acquiring, repairing and documenting technology as the preservers we are. We also keep track of the technology we have and just general record keeping just… not with clay tablets." She winked.

"I thought so."

"And Knights, like Rhys, are in charge of…"

"Kicking ass."

Nate was about to laugh, when he looked at Rhys and realized that it was much less of a joke and more an intimidation tactic. "Oh, that's nice."

Haylen elbowed him in the ribs. "You say that, but you're the one who needed me to take care of you for the last two days," Haylen said with a cocked head.

"That's only because I saved your ass from a ghoul taking a chunk of your flesh."

"Allegedly."

Rhys shook his head. "Ridiculous."

Haylen faced Nate again. "Knights aren't just ass-kickers. They're really the building blocks of The Brotherhood of Steel. They're medics, repairmen, armorers, gunsmiths but also occasionally ass-kickers."

Rhys went directly up to Nate, far too close for comfort. "How much do you actually know about The Brotherhood?"

"Um, a bit?" He leaned back a bit. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just trying to figure out why Danse suddenly decided to initiate a punk we didn't even know of a few hours ago." He narrowed his gaze. "And even more, why are you joining? You don't even seem to know that much about us. Makes me wonder if you'd be willing to sacrifice your life like the rest of us would."

Piper finally spoke. "Wow. You guys are just as fun as I imagined you to be."

Nate avoided his eyes as best as he could. "I don't know. It's you guys or wandering alone." He started to wonder—with Rhys's pungent breath down his collar—if he made the best decision.

Haylen came over and pulled him off. "Down boy, Rhys! You have to trust Paladin Danse on this one. If he trusts him, so should we."

"Yeah, sure." Rhys just went back to his seat and smirked. "I'm just happy we have someone who joined us out of convenience."

"Well, no, tha—" Nate went to defend himself, but was cut off.

"Enough, Rhys!" Paladin Danse came stomping down the stairs in his power armor and Rhys and Haylen stood at attention. "If it weren't for Nate, we'd likely be dead in the water right now waiting for help that would never come."

"Sorry, sir!" Rhys said, before sneaking some dagger eyes at Nate.

"I don't need you two to be best of friends, but I do need you to be civil because we are a team. We all have our reasons for being here and Nate has just as good of one as any of us."

Haylen perked up. "Are we all set with the transmitter?"

"Indeed," he said, "I also included a note where to find us when they do show up."

Nate raised a hand. "So when do you think they'll show up?"

"It's hard to say," Danse said, "They'll be eager to come as soon as they learn of The Institute's whereabouts, but getting the Prydwen here will be no easy task."

Piper butted in between them and said, "Are we ready to roll out?" Piper said with an impatient look. "I'd like to get to our first rest point before super mutant suppertime."

* * *

Nate had to admit that Piper made a fantastic tour guide as she took them on her self-described "only safe, no fighting route in and out of the heart of the city." And he got to see first hand the death and destruction that befell the city he once roamed, from alleyways to underpasses to main streets that Nora loved to shop at.

As a special requirement of her route, there were a number of "rest points," where they had to wait out a certain raider tribe's patrol route or waiting on some super mutants to move to a different spot.

Nate had only a few words when he saw his first super mutant: "WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS!" He screamed in his softest voice he could muster for his shock.

"Super-mutants, I guess I can assume you didn't have those back in the day?" Piper said.

He looked on from the fifth floor of a parking garage as he saw giant green men with giant orange hounds walking around. "Yeah, no. I mean we had the Jolly Green Giant, but I think that was the closest."

"Super mutants were brought about by man's greed in playing with the laws of nature to make the ultimate soldiers of war," Danse's face scrunched in a way that Nate hadn't seen before, it almost looked like he was as sad as he was angry. "And look what you wrought."

They continued on their way as the super mutants went on their way to banquet which they heard from their boisterous screams. Eventually leading to another rest point along the way. "Get comfortable," Piper said as they settled into an office building only a few blocks away from Fenway, "This is Gunner's territory and they don't leave cracks in their patrol." She smiled. "Well, not many."

Nate found himself a corner and decided to sit and think for a bit. He realized that he might have had a bit of an idealistic idea of how he was going to get along with The Brotherhood of Steel and suddenly he realized that perhaps his chipper pre-war attitude wasn't going to sit well with their wasteland attitudes. Maybe it wasn't going to be a great fit for him, but it wasn't like hundreds of people were begging to share his company. He just had to wonder if he was going to be okay.

"Hey, I think we got off on the wrong foot." He raised his head and saw Haylen was standing over him.

He moved over and patted the earth next to him. "It's okay. You definitely could have gotten off on a wronger foot," he said eyeing Rhys.

"Don't mind him, he's just a bit of a ruffian, y'know?" She said with a slanted smile, coming down next to him.

Nate could not help but glare. "I'm surprised The Brotherhood would accept his kind of attitude."

"Are you one to speak?"

"Touché." He let a defending finger fly. "But! They have time to kick me out once they realize what a horrible mistake they made. How long has Rhys been with the Brotherhood?"

"A good couple years, I'm pretty sure."

Nate raised his eyebrows. "Well, they're deep in bed with him at this point."

She had a bit of a confrontational, but joking tone as she said, "You sure have a lot of opinions about what it is to be a part of The Brotherhood for someone having been a part of it for less than three hours."

Nate hit himself on the forehead. "You're right, I'm sorry, I'm stepping out of line. My wife tells me I get this way whenever my competitive side comes out. I'm sure he's actually a really orderly, honest soldier and I caught him on a bad day."

"Oh no, he's anything but!" Haylen said with a laugh. "His rap sheet with The Brotherhood is like a laundry list: disorderly conduct after disorderly conduct."

"The sex must be _amazing,_ then."

Haylen let out a boisterous laugh that even caught the eyes and shushes of the party in front of them. "Sorry," she said. "If he could have sex with the concept of The Brotherhood, I'm sure he would." She sighed, "I swear you won't find a more loyal person, though. I'm sure that's why The Brotherhood puts up with him."

"And the sex."

"And the sex, of course."

Piper leaned over the edge and with a handwave, said, "Here's our chance! Let's go!"

* * *

Through the thickets of the concrete jungle they were finally in front of the entrance to Fenway, or now known as Diamond City. A pavilion that was used to welcoming hundreds of spectators into its home was now barren with only the hum of turrets in its stead. He could practically still smell the hot dogs they had for sale… if it weren't for the overwhelming stench of rotting flesh.

"So, this is the famous Diamond City," Haylen said, "Gotta say, it lives up to the hype."

Blocking the entrance was a large metal shutter, presumably to keep out raiders. Piper went up beside it to a little intercom system.

She went up to the buzzer, pressed the button and proceeded to lean confidently on the it as she spoke. "Hey Danny, it's Piper, think you can open the gates?"

A non-confident groan came from the other end. "Ugh, sorry Piper, I'm afraid that's a no-can-do."

Piper suddenly caught the eyes of all four Brotherhood of Steel members. "Um, what?" Piper said with widened eyes. "What did you say, Danny?"

"I can't let you in, Piper, I'm sorry."

"This isn't the time for jokes, Danny! Just kind of sitting out here in the open waiting for a super mutant to come up and say, 'Hello, time to eat puny human body now!'"

"I'm sorry, Piper, I got direct orders from Mayor McDonough. He's officially deemed you a threat to the city after the last article you published."

She suddenly switched to a delicate, soothing tone. "Awww, Danny, you don't believe those things about me, do you? You know I'm only here to help the people."

"Well, you definitely spread chaos, Piper, that much is pretty indisputable. I'm not sure if people want your special brand of help anymore. Maybe this is for the best…"

The delicate tones immediately melted away to the angriest, softest tone she had. "Danny Franklin Sullivan, I swear to the high heavens that if you don't ope—"

"Piper, honestly, it doesn't matter what I think. I'm just doing my job, so if you'd make this easier for the both of us, just find another city to pester." Piper's anger was seething off of her, tangible to all. "We can send Nat out later, if you want."

Piper clenched her fists and took a deep breath. Danse was about to speak when Piper held up one finger and flashed a devilish smile. "Follow along," she whispered.

"Awww man, Danny, I really hoped it wouldn't come to this. But if you really want to make an enemy with The Brotherhood of Steel, I can't stop you."

"B-Brotherhood of Steel?"

"Yeah, Danny Boy, I made a few friends while I was out there. A dozen of them, to be accurate." Piper held up her finger to Danse again. "I was going to give them a fun little tour of the city, but you've made the executive decision to brand Diamond City as enemy to The Brotherhood." She shook her head. "Very bold."

"W-Well, j-just wait a minute, there!"

"Really, though… Doesn't the Brotherhood have a metal blimp, Danse?"

Danse spoke with disdain on his face, "I will not—"

Nate jumped in. "Yes, me, Danse! We sure do, Piper. Ten of them!" He quickly turned to Danse and quietly said, "Do you really have a metal blimp?" He just rolled his eyes.

"Wow, Danny! Can you believe that? Ten whole blimps. And quick question, what do you think will win. This metal wall you got here or ten blimps?" She leaned into the intercom and whispered. "I'll give you a hint… blimps can go over walls."

"Fine! J-just give me a minute…"

And suddenly, the metal door began to rise.

"Do not make major political threats on behalf of The Brotherhood, civilian!" Danse said.

She brushed him off. "It's called a bluff, calm your servos."

"Do not speak to our captain that way!" Rhys chimed in.

"Calm down, Rhys, I don't need you to stand up for me."

"Sorry, Captain."

As soon as the metal door rose, Danny came running out, "Hey! So, no hard feelings abo—" He stopped as he saw only the four of them. "This is less than a dozen people, Piper."

"Oh, did I say a dozen soldiers. I meant to say they fight with the fervor of a dozen soldiers." She pat Danny on the chest. "Thanks for the reentry, Danny."

Danny looked fully defeated as they strolled in one by one. "Mayor McDonough's going to have me killed…"

* * *

Reaching the opening to Diamond City, it was like walking into a whole new world. What was once a field was now covered in shacks, upon shacks upon lean-tos upon bungalows with a giant smokestack-looking restaurant in the middle. Partially broken stadium lights lit the area. It was a slum-town for sure (the smell wouldn't let him forget), but something did feel rather homey about it.

But this wasn't going to be the time to see it, as right upon going down the ramp leading into the city was a building with a Publick Occurrences sign on it.

A small girl stood in front, waving a newspaper over her head. "Read all about it! Is your neighbor being replaced by a synth! Find out more in this special edition!" she yelled. "Piper!" The small girl put her armful of newspapers down and came running up as soon as they came down from the entrance. "You're back!"

"Hey Nat, how's the paper selling," She bent down and received a hug from the girl.

"People are eating up the McDonough synth issue."

"Synth issue?" Danse said.

Nat got out of Piper's arms and looked at the four strangers following her sister. "Who are these people?" She met eyes with Piper. "Are you in trouble?"

Piper laughed. "This is Danse, Nate and…" she blanked as she stared at the other two.

"Rhys and Haylen," Danse said.

"Okay, to be fair, I didn't fight for my life through a synth-infested laboratory with you two." That didn't stop Rhys from glaring. "Anyways, these people are going to be staying with us."

Nat looked nervously back at their hovel. "Really?"

"Yeah, they're a part of the Brotherhood of Steel, so they're going to keep us safe when things get a little spicy here."

"We're not mercenaries, citizen, you do well remember that," Rhys said with a snarl.

Piper grunted and looked back. "You do protect the innocent, right? Well, here's two innocents who don't want to be brutally murdered in the night. Hmmmmmmmm?"

"I'm definitely innocent, I don't know about my big sister," Nat said.

Piper scoffed. "Cutthroat devotion to the truth even in my own home." Piper pretended to choke up. "I'm so proud."

Nat went up to all of them with an outstretched hand and said, "The name's Nat Wright, Publick Occurrences." She smiled warmly up to them. "Nice to meet you!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, civilian." Danse said, lightly shaking her hand with his power armored one.

"Charmed," Nate said as she went down the line.

"Thanks for sharing your home," Haylen said.

Rhys grunted when he shook her hand.

They made their way into the shack.

Entering the hovel, it became clear that Piper may have pumped up her place a bit as it really didn't seem all that fit for six people, hell, it was even shaky for two.

"Welcome home."

And what a house it was as they learned on Piper's tour. The living room was composed of a couch and a repurposed dishwasher as an armrest. At the far side was a terminal attached to a printing press, seemingly she used this set up to make the numerous copies of Publick Occurrences that littered the room (and presumably the whole city). Behind that was a makeshift wall made of cinderblocks with a mattress lying on the ground behind it.

He ventured up some stairs to find Piper's room. With a bed on a stand, a desk with a computer and a door leading out to the 'balcony.' At least that was how Piper described it, the correct term would be 'patchy-ass roof,' as Rhys put it.

"Hey! When the sun's setting over The Wall, the atomic breeze hits you just right and slightly tepid beer in hand. Baby, it feels like the balcony of some kind of hoity-toity mansion." Piper with a kiss of her fingers.

The tour ended back in the living room when all of soldiers looked at each other and the same thought appeared on all of their minds. Eventually Nate spoke up. "So, is there a hidden room with some extra beds?"

She sighed. "I thought you would say that." She went and sat on the couch, popping open the dishwasher to pick out a Nuka-Cola. "Okay, so it isn't the highest class place you've ever been, but…" She popped open her soda and drank slowly to give her time to think. "You don't have to take rests in turns?"

"Even the police station had beds," Rhys said.

"Oh, aren't you guys soldiers!" Piper scolded. "_The most pampered soldiers I ever met._" She looked around. "We can make do! Let's see…" She put a hand on her chin. "Nat can share a bed with me upstairs."

"What?!" Nat yelled. "That's not fair!"

"Oh, come on, just pretend like it's like when we were just starting out and can only afford one bed."

"I was a kid then!"

"This is going to blow your mind, but…" She leaned in and whispered. "You're still fully a child." Nat just pouted and stomped her foot. "And you're still acting like one too, it seems."

"Fine, whatever…" Nat said going behind the cinderblock wall, grabbing a few trinkets and moving up the stairs with them.

Piper yelled up, "Just think! When I'm gone, you get to have it all for yourself."

"I already do that!" They all heard yelled from upstairs.

Piper just shook her head. "Kids, huh?"

"So, we're all sharing that bed?" Haylen said, pointing to the alcove room.

"Well, one of you can take the couch. Which then leaves us with two of you bed-less."

"I can sleep in my power armor," Danse said.

Nate looked up at him. "You can?"

"It's something we learn in basic training. In case of emergency, a raider isn't going to politely wait for you to suit up in power armor while they ambush you in the night." He looked at Nate's perplexed face. "Besides, I find it more comfortable to be in it than out."

Piper clapped her hands. "Great! Just one left."

"Me and Rhys will share the bed," Haylen blurted out coolly. Rhys's head snapped to Haylen, she said, "Oh calm down. It's not like that. I just need to keep you from strangling the initiate in the night."

Rhys clammed up. "Whatever works." He eyed Nate. "Better company than some others."

Nate just sneered and rolled his eyes. "You'd be so lucky."

"Great! It's all settled!" She looked out a window and saw the afternoon soon turning to night. "Alright, I got to get to be before I head out tomorrow," she said.

Nat ran down from the upstairs. "Already?"

"Well, yeah, kiddo." She went over to the stairs and tousled her hair. "Apparently there's something big happening in Vault 81?"

"Vault 81? Which one is that?"

"It's the one northeast of here, remember?"

"Oh yeah! They're the one that's still up and running."

Piper rolled up her sleeves. "Yeah, but maybe not for long. Apparently there's a disease outbreak that the overseer is trying to cover up."

"Wow! What a story!"

"Exactly!"

"That kind of exposé could feed us for a month!"

"That's what I'm thinking. I'm sure the people of Diamond City will be happy to hear life is shitty for other people than them for once in a blue moon."

Danse raised a finger.

"I haven't forgotten about you, proud boy." She went over and sat by the terminal by the printing press. "I'll interview you tonight and rush out a piece about you before morning."

Danse raised his chin to her. "I'd prefer not a rush piece. The Brotherhood deserves care and attention."

"Hey, it might work out in your favor! Maybe I'll forget to include your organization's proclivity for extorting resources from underprivileged farmers in the wasteland." Piper displayed a proud smile while Nat laughed watching.

"I feel as if I'm going to regret this."

"I'm going to take a walk," Nate said hiding a smile, "If that's alright, Captain?"

"Go ahead."

"Be careful," Piper said, "We may not let raiders come in, but that won't stop someone slipping a hand in your back pocket if you're not careful."

"Noted!" And he slipped out.

* * *

All the sights he saw on his walk, it was all kind of crazy to him. He saw a two-headed cow being led through the narrow streets, security people wearing umpire's gear, a radio station with the wimpiest host he ever heard and even a Protectron robot stirring ramen up in the smokestack-looking restaurant.

It wasn't too long into his walk did night finally fall on Diamond City and the day was finally coming to a close. He finally made it through the day.

He found a small pond in the back corner of the city with a nifty boardwalk leading to a trailer sitting in the middle of it on stilts. At night, spotlights lit up the water, making it glow a beautiful cerulean. He leaned down and sat on the ledge, dangling his feet over the water.

Suddenly all of the weight of the day hit him all at once. He tried to stay as composed as possible throughout the day, but finally it just got to be too much and he started to sob. The floodgates were open and he just couldn't get them closed. He didn't care who saw him, he just needed to cry. Nora was gone. Shaun was gone. Everyone was gone. Everything he worked for his entire life was gone.

He just let his tears fall to the pool below as he heard the distant sound of a baby crying, only making him cry harder.

"Soldier," He heard from behind him.

He looked up and saw Danse standing over him out of his power armor. Nate went to get up and stand at attention, but Danse just put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and got down on the boardwalk with him.

Nate quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. "Sir!" he said shakily. "I haven't seen you out of your power armor before. It's weird."

"Scribe Haylen is doing touch-ups on it right now."

"How'd the interview go?" he said between sniffles.

"Fine. I tried to give her some constructive criticism on her article while she was writing it, but she decided to kick me out instead." Danse simply watched Nate as he pathetically tried to mask his crying. "Is this that aneurism that you were talking about."

Nate let out a sad chuckle. "Sorry, Captain."

"Don't be sorry." Danse rubbed his back. "Let it all out."

"Huh?" Nate gave the most perplexed look. "That is not what I was expecting you to say."

"And that is?"

"_Soldiers in the Brotherhood don't cry! Soldiers are strong! There's a sniper who's been waiting for his shot and you just gave it to him!_"

"Soldiers are people too. We feel just as anyone does. When my team lost Keane, Worwick, Brach, and Dawes I was devastated. I'll admit that I cried."

"Really?"

"Of course. But when I was all cried out, I just lifted my head and I marched on. Because I have to be strong for the ones I can still lose." He looked Nate directly in his eyes, even when Nate tried to hide them. "Isn't there someone you need to get back?"

"Shaun…"

"So, get it out now, because you can't risk getting it out later when someone is depending on you."

He felt a renewed determination welling up in him, but at the same time, a crushing depression just kept throwing it back down. "I can't just forget Nora…"

"You never forget the ones you lose. It's an impossible task. So, you just have to bring them along for the ride and let them look over you." Nate at him, almost confused, "I carry them around my neck," He brought out his comrades' holotags resting around his neck. "I guess you'll carry your wife on your finger."

Nate fiddled with the ring on his finger and he suddenly felt another wave of tears hitting him. Danse wrapped an arm around him and brought him closer. "Come on, just let it out."

"Thanks, Captain," he said, laughing and crying all together. It was then with Danse holding him close and calming him with dulcet words did he know that he was going to be alright. He finally saw that he wasn't in a dark cave descending to never-ending darkness, but a tunnel with a light at the end. Soon he would dry his tears and he would find his son, wherever he might be. But for now he just felt the heat from Danse's body as he let the night take some of the weight from his shoulders.

"When you feel like you can lift your head, I'll be there," Danse said letting Nate rest his head on his shoulder. "Always. That's my promise to my subordinates."

.

.

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* * *

Author's Note – Hey All, thanks for making it the beginning of my second arc. Thank you all for reading up to this point, it means a lot. I love feedback and love talking to people. Anyways, I have a lot planned for this series, so I hope you'll keep reading.


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